Detention for assault with knife

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 10

Detention for assault with knife

A young man who drew a knife on a doorman outside the Adam’s Apple Nite' Club, Lichfield. Street, at 2 a.m.» on December 21, was told by Mr B. A. Palmer, S.M., in the . Magistrate’s Court yesterday that he had gone perilously close to a custodial sentence. ‘ The defendant, Paul John Findlay, aged 23 (Mr K. J. Osborn), was appearing for sentence on charges of having an offensive weapon, a knife, in.. Lichfield Street, and assaulting the doorman; Richard Hawes, With intent to injure him. : was sentenced to five in o nth s ’ non-residential periodic detention on each charge, to be served concurrently, . , . . ? A(. the. original hearing, when the defendant denied the offences, evidence was given that Mr Hawes suffered a minor stab wound in a leg. The defendant had used the knife after his group, had been refused admittance to' the night club.

Imposing sentence yesterday, the Magistrate accepted Mr Osborn’s submission ;that the defendant had not been in trouble for the. last five years. He had no previous record of violence. . / Mr Osborn said the 1 offence had been a z “disappointing lapse” and had resulted from a sense of bravado on the defendant’s part.

The Magistrate said Mr Hawes, who had picked up a piece of wood and swung it at the defendant in an attempt to disarm him, had been justified in using an aggressive form of selfdefence. The incident could have developed into an uglier situation. . ■• The Magistrate ■ said he accepted that there was a measure of impulsiveness in the defendant's action. He took into account that he had-previously kept out of trouble, and he had a good work record.